THE CIRCULATION OF SURFACE WATERS IN RALEIGH BAY, NORTH CAROLINA1

Abstract

Returns from helicopter‐released drift bottles over Diamond Shoals, in April and August 1962, revealed a definite southwesterly coastal flow from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Influenced by northeast winds the flow was more pronounced in late summer than in late spring, some of the bottles rounding Cape Lookout. Recovery of drift bottles from Onslow Bay and Bogue Sound strongly supports the theory that the temporary winter populations of distinctly northern species in the Beaufort, North Carolina, area become established from planktonic larvae that originated north of Cape Hatteras and were transported around the capes. A postulated circulation, involving the influences of Diamond and Lookout shoals, runoff, northeasterly and southwesterly winds, and back eddies from the Florida Current and from wind‐induced currents, is presented for Raleigh Bay.